You can absolutely use physical force to stop a pickpocket. But it has to be a reasonable level of force. For Americans that means you can't randomly murder people and call it self defence.

I never heard anyone say you can't stop a pickpocket.

Wouldn't the 'Merica! version of this be "Noo! Those brown people might pickpocket me, so I should burn down their homes now before they get a chance!"

So these are both supposed to be from a Parisian's perspective i think?

So the first one about not resisting pickpockets was during the Paris Olympics, but that wasn't a general sentiment by the french at all, that was the Paris Police communicating that, and their specific reason was to keep cases of stabbings down since pickpockets often carry knives. That was not a 'think of the pickpocket's family' scenario.

The second is a Frenchman or Perisian visiting the US and not tipping i think. Eh, this is an actual sentiment for - frankly even many Americans. Not great, but neither is the tipping culture itself.

France 🤢

Come here in Italy where there is no tipping culture and you can hate pickpockets all you want

Perfect user name for the meme.